Originally Posted by 1janiedoughHanson had at least 2 top 100 Flosoftball players on her squad, yet they did not improve, nor did the team improve at all. I wrote to the athletic director a couple years back and told him he was nuts to hire a coach from a non athletic scholarship school to Stanford...the Capital One Cup perennial winner.

And you wrote that letter knowing the quality of all of the others who had applied at that time. So, since you were so in the know, how about a list of those more highly qualified candidates who applied at that time. Hey, maybe just four or five names. __________________Those mountains in front of you will seem like little hills when you are beyond them and they are in the past!

CoachB25, while we are all entitled to different opinions you clearly do not understand how power 5 schools, like Stanford ,operate in sports so let's educate you on how this goes down. They have a few key contacts in that sport who know who the best coaches are and then get a pulse on who they are going to "go after." The top coaches they want don't actually apply to the job. They are called, asked if they are interested and if so go from there. The applying is merely an HR hoop they have to jump through. Stanford's first move for a head coach isn't to go through applications and pick out the best one. I mean you don't actually think Clint Meyers had to apply for the Auburn job?? Please he was called said hey we want you, come on out, here's the offer, okay great Welcome to Auburn.

Now if the people they first go after decline it, then they go back to the drawing board and see who is left. Stanford had many say No because of numerous reasons. Many because Rittman is a long time well respected coach and if it happened to a guy like that then there's no way they would take it. God forbid you are honest with a kid who isn't good enough to start. Other's because they didn't want to pay them enough and fall out from his firing, yes firing. I respect Hanson, she just isn't qualified to run that program. VERY few coaches would be able to have success there, much less handle the mess the AD made there. - Allister-Nuveman- Vecchione-Ford-Healy

And you wrote that letter knowing the quality of all of the others who had applied at that time. So, since you were so in the know, how about a list of those more highly qualified candidates who applied at that time. Hey, maybe just four or five names.

Ummm...lol?

I don't have to know a single solitary coach out there to know that you do not hire a coach who recruited non-scholarship/non-tourney athletes to a school where the priorities of the student-athletes was most definitely academic to coach the even HIGHER functioning student-athletes at the academic stronghold slash perennial Capital Cup winning Stanford Cardinal.

She has merely transferred the Ivy softball non-importance over to the west coast now. I watched a number of Stanford softball games this season and was appalled at the lack of fundamentals and the lack of Pac12 caliber mentality.

Originally Posted by UnregisteredCoachB25, while we are all entitled to different opinions you clearly do not understand how power 5 schools, like Stanford ,operate in sports so let's educate you on how this goes down. They have a few key contacts in that sport who know who the best coaches are and then get a pulse on who they are going to "go after." The top coaches they want don't actually apply to the job. They are called, asked if they are interested and if so go from there. The applying is merely an HR hoop they have to jump through. Stanford's first move for a head coach isn't to go through applications and pick out the best one. I mean you don't actually think Clint Meyers had to apply for the Auburn job?? Please he was called said hey we want you, come on out, here's the offer, okay great Welcome to Auburn.

Now if the people they first go after decline it, then they go back to the drawing board and see who is left. Stanford had many say No because of numerous reasons. Many because Rittman is a long time well respected coach and if it happened to a guy like that then there's no way they would take it. God forbid you are honest with a kid who isn't good enough to start. Other's because they didn't want to pay them enough and fall out from his firing, yes firing. I respect Hanson, she just isn't qualified to run that program. VERY few coaches would be able to have success there, much less handle the mess the AD made there. - Allister-Nuveman- Vecchione-Ford-Healy

I understand that I do not understand how P5 conferences do things. I'll admit that and I should have asked the 2 P5 coaches I talked to Monday on the phone about hitting etc. how they do things. I know I'm a rum dummy but believe it or not, I know a lot of people at these various schools and know this, that Stanford job was a hot potato.

I edited this to add:

I did want to clarify again as I have posted before that I am friends of the Hanson Family. So, I want to be above board on my support of Rachel. I'll leave it at that. __________________Those mountains in front of you will seem like little hills when you are beyond them and they are in the past!

I don't have to know a single solitary coach out there to know that you do not hire a coach who recruited non-scholarship/non-tourney athletes to a school where the priorities of the student-athletes was most definitely academic to coach the even HIGHER functioning student-athletes at the academic stronghold slash perennial Capital Cup winning Stanford Cardinal.

You sure do hire them, when all those who you consider qualified (based on your above-stated criteria) and who you offer the job to, are not interested in the position.

I don't have to know a single solitary coach out there to know that you do not hire a coach who recruited non-scholarship/non-tourney athletes to a school where the priorities of the student-athletes was most definitely academic to coach the even HIGHER functioning student-athletes at the academic stronghold slash perennial Capital Cup winning Stanford Cardinal.

She has merely transferred the Ivy softball non-importance over to the west coast now. I watched a number of Stanford softball games this season and was appalled at the lack of fundamentals and the lack of Pac12 caliber mentality.

Dodged the question. Can you name the top caliber coaches who applied. You are in the know. You are the expert. Name the ones who applied and were overlooked. I asked for a short list of 4 or 5. Go ahead. __________________Those mountains in front of you will seem like little hills when you are beyond them and they are in the past!

Dodged the question. Can you name the top caliber coaches who applied. You are in the know. You are the expert. Name the ones who applied and were overlooked. I asked for a short list of 4 or 5. Go ahead.

What difference does it make at this time. I am sure candidate(s) applied and Rachel was not the sole applicant. If she was the most qualified then they deserved what they got. I suspect she was the candidate that would cost the least to absorb the costs of paying off the former coach's buyout. Who do you venture will be the next coach? Now that would be newsworthy and fun to speculate.

Dodged the question. Can you name the top caliber coaches who applied. You are in the know. You are the expert. Name the ones who applied and were overlooked. I asked for a short list of 4 or 5. Go ahead.

While I'm sure there were people who "applied" those were not the serious candidates people are talking about. Schools at this level go after coaches. Stanford went after several well qualified coaches but none wanted the job due to the mess the administration had created by allowing the parents to ruin the reputation of a man extremely well respected in the softball world over lack of playing time by walk-ons. Many saw a situation where Stanford was a better job status wise but they would be giving up the security of their current job for a mess most knew couldn't be cleaned up if they were not able to clean house. There were other issues that scared good coaches away but the administrations mess was the most prominent.

In the end Coach Hanson was well qualified from an academic side and she had done well at Dartmouth and she is a tremendous person. Unfortunately she was just in over her head with regards to a major D1 program...as are many people who have tried. Doesn't mean they're bad people or bad coaches. There's so much more to being a Power 5 HC then just knowing how to coach the sport.

Originally Posted by TerpAlumI am assuming Stanford gets Fed money. In that case, the job must be advertised, allowing a diverse group of people to apply (typically on line) to meet affirmative action requirements. These systems typically pre-screen for basic qualifications and then collect information on remaining qualifications, often scoring the candidate on them. The school can 'call' people, but will have to route them to the regular application process.

State employment laws would dictate how the positions are to be advertised and how long they have to post etc. __________________And if I don't like what you say then...

Stanford is a private institution. I don't know if they receive any federal money or not but it really doesn't matter. Even if this rule applies it has no teeth.

The way hiring seems to work is the university creates a list of people, either by themselves or with the help of consultants who do this sort of thing. There is slight variation from there. Mostly they put the list in order and just go one by one asking if people want the job. Some schools, bring in a few from the top of the list. To fulfill the posting requirements, the jobs are either posted during or after the "real" process with those "candidates" getting a form letter, if they are lucky (usually crickets). I personally know of only one school (Iowa State) that actually had anything resembling a normal hiring process in the last couple of years.

So what? So she moves up a spot or two in the Pac. Hell say she moves to the middle of pack even. So what? In Minnesota she wins the Big Ten title next year and has a shot at the WS. She just walks away from that? Come on. Its a terrible decision.

How is it anyone's place to say someone has made a horrible decision in their life. You have no idea what led up to her deciding to go to Stanford. I'm sure she realized this year that Minnesota was never going to get the respect they deserved. She'll be in the PAC 12 where she has a chance at the post-season once she makes it to the middle of the pack. They'll be there quickly.

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